Donovan watched Kalen leave and froze for a few seconds, feeling like he was someone who didn't want to be disturbed, so he decided not to talk to him too much.
"What happened...?"
Kalen didn't stop and continued walking.
"You heard my test earlier, didn't you?"
Donovan bit his lips in frustration and said nothing more. Even though he had gotten along with Kalen and Oliver at first... when he saw Rodhlann stab Kalen in the back, he didn't know how to feel.
Elisabeth and Talika were waiting for him a little further away, and when they saw him, they quickly approached.
"Hey... Are you all, right?" asked Elisabeth, not knowing what had happened but having a faint idea.
Kalen looked at Elisabeth and then at Talika, to whom he turned.
"Can you give Elisabeth and me a moment?"
Talika nodded nervously and hurried off with the others towards the base. Elisabeth looked at him seriously instead.
"What do you need?"
Kalen raised his bone sword and began to wipe the blood from it, Elisabeth swallowed saliva at the sight and sighed inwardly as her suspicions came true.
"So, you did it..."
Kalen nodded and looked at her.
"You still haven't finished your third test, have you?"
Elisabeth nodded, not understanding why he would suddenly bring up the subject at a time like this.
"No... why?"
Kalen finished wiping the blood from his sword and put it down.
"Let's make another deal, I'll tell you everything about what happened in the cave, and I only want one thing..."
Elisabeth braced herself for Kalen's stern demands. Although she didn't know exactly what had happened, she understood that she was in no mood for unnecessary jokes, so she remained silent and listened to Kalen's proposal.
"I just want you to do me a favor"
The suggestion was not what she had expected, so she didn't immediately know what to say.
"Just that?"
Kalen nodded.
"Just that, do you accept?"
Elisabeth started to think about the pros and cons of the proposal, and although it was very ambiguous, it would help her too much to finish her third test.
"Well... yes, I just hope that the favor you ask is within my capacity"
After that, they both swore the oath in words, as they had done on the first day, and Kalen told her everything the firefly had told him.
Elisabeth didn't know how to react at first, but like Kalen, she began to put things together and little by little more things began to make sense.
Kalen gave her a few minutes to process everything, and when Elisabeth understood, she looked at him with a less tense expression than before.
If things continued as they were, she would pass her three tests, just like Kalen. She just had to keep the group safe and hope that nothing else would happen.
There were only those ten people left, the other ten had died, so Elisabeth couldn't afford for anyone else to die.
"What are you going to do now?"
Kalen was silent at Elisabeth's question, then looked down one of the cave's many tunnels and back up at her.
"I'm going away for a few days... but don't worry, I'll be back by the end of the week"
Elisabeth couldn't help but worry, the base might be a moderately safe place for the group, since the explosion caused by the Elemental's death, the creatures of the abyss were no longer coming in droves, but further away from the epicenter it was still a slaughterhouse.
Furthermore, there were just over 7 days left until the 30-day deadline of the Urasis trial. He simply did not understand what Kalen was doing in the caves.
She did not dare tell him, knowing that he would not listen to her.
Before leaving, Kalen looked at the back of the base where everyone was gathered and then back at Elisabeth.
"I assume you know what my test is..."
Elisabeth felt a chill at Kalen's words, her curiosity had overpowered her logic and she had looked at Kalen's scroll while Kalen was asleep, so she knew she had to keep Talika safe.
But now he could see that they both had the same test.
"Yes..."
Kalen was also aware of this, so he took advantage of Elisabeth's situation to leave in peace and without unnecessary worries.
"Then I will leave her in your care"
Kalen began to walk towards the exit of the cave and Elisabeth watched as he disappeared into the dim darkness of the tunnels.
She turned and began to walk towards Donovan who had been watching her for some time.
Donovan looked at her worriedly. "Is he leaving?"
Elisabeth sighed and nodded.
"Yes... but it doesn't matter. I have other things to attend to now"
Donovan looked back and couldn't help but feel bad for himself and Kalen.
"Wasn't there another option?"
Shaking her head, Elisabeth entered the cave and sighed again when she saw Rodhlann's limp body.
"…I'm getting tired of this"
***
Several hours later, Kalen sat at the side of the tunnel with his back to the wall, breathing heavily.
"I need real vacations..."
In his hand, several small crystals glowed opaquely, just like the crystals he had gotten from killing those slimes in the elemental cave, these were also quite small, more fragments of a larger crystal than a complete one.
Without giving them a second glance, Kalen popped the crystals into his mouth and began to chew. They were also tasteless and began to melt as soon as they entered his mouth.
As soon as he left the base, he encountered a horde of just over 5 rotting wolves, which he dispatched with relative ease.
They were not powerful, they were so incredibly fragile that a well-placed kick could break their bones, so it was not difficult to incapacitate one to fight the others.
Each of the wolves released a crystal in a somewhat... odd manner.
At the end of their lives, the crystals would leave the body on their own, something Kalen was grateful for, so he didn't have to reach into everyone's body for something so small. Something that could take hours.
He didn't know if the crystal he'd found in the body of the monster the firefly had become was the same kind of crystal.
After all, it was bigger than the wolf crystals and contained the golden firefly.
He also remembered what Jeanne had told him, that the monster was in its second evolution, so maybe the size of the life crystal was related to its power.
Kalen had no idea, and with so little to compare it was hard to say.
However, once he was out of this cave and back on his world, he could learn more about Urasis and all that was known of the World of Salvation.
Kalen had no great intention of returning to Urasis, but he could not expect to be suddenly dragged back without being able to refuse. Better to be prepared than to face the unknown.
Keeping this thought to himself, Kalen stood up and continued to walk through the endless tunnels of the Firefly Cavern.
Against the previous horde, he had fought purely with his physical strength, not using his elemental energy, because every time he tried to use it, his body hurt terribly.
He had overused the artificial core, and the energy had recharged more slowly than he had expected. So, he concluded that he would only be able to use some elemental energy moderately in the last few days.
Now all he could do was collect life crystals until the test was over and hopefully develop his ability... which he didn't have at the moment.
"Seriously... what kind of joke is this?"
After thinking about it for a while, Kalen had a guess as to why he hadn't been given an ability to begin with, or why Urasis or whoever was behind the tests hadn't given him one.
Kalen was strong, at least compared to the average human. He had spent several years training under harsh conditions to become an assassin, so if he gained an ability, it would be at a great disadvantage to those who had never trained before.
He didn't know if Zayne had a skill, but he probably did. For like Kalen, Zayne had trained for several years.
Thinking of Zayne, Kalen began to expect an uproar when his father, Aston Vehleim, heard that his son had died in his first test.
He didn't know his family, perhaps Aston would feel shame or disappointment, perhaps sadness at the loss of a son. But it would be big news for the world, something that could hardly be hidden.
The one who would have the hardest time would be Jaume Che, Zayne's killer. But only the survivors of the ordeal knew the truth, including Kalen. It was not known whether anyone would talk or not.
According to Jaume, the other men who had gone with Zayne in the beginning had eventually died. While he survived, along with two others who died later when they encountered the monster.
So, there was no one to hold a grudge against Jaume Che, so perhaps he could live in peace for a while without the pressure of a pillar of humanity pressuring him for killing his son.
'As they say, what happens in Vegas stay in Vegas... even if Vegas doesn't exist anymore'
Kalen walked on, lost in thought, searching for more abyssal creatures to confront.